For the direct production of L-arginine by fermentation methods using glutamic acid-producing microorganisms belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium, the method using L-arginine-producing mutant strains derived from wild-type strains are known.
As the L-arginine-producing mutant strains, those resistant to amino acid analogs or those having both characteristics resistant to amino acid analogs and requiring nucleic acid bases for their growth are described in Agr. Biol. Chem., 36, 1675-1684 (1972) and Japanese Published Examined Patent Application Nos. 37235/79 and 150381/82.
The present inventors have studied the production of L-arginine using a microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium by recombinant DNA technology different from the conventional mutational breeding technology for the purpose of improving the L-arginine productivity. As the result, the present inventors have found that a microorganism harboring a recombinant DNA of a gene encoding for the enzyme involved in the biosynthesis of L-arginine and a vector plasmid of the microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium is superior in production of L-arginine than a microorganism which does not harbor such recombinant.
The fact that the introduction of a recombinant DNA containing a gene encoding for the enzyme involved in arginine biosynthesis into L-arginine-nonproducing microorganism belonging to the genus Corynebacterium or Brevibacterium confers L-arginine productivity on the microorganism has been found first by the present inventors.